“The books were fun

They all love Dr. Seuss”

For Mackenzie Trinidad-Dowdy, reading Dr. Seuss books during class, in her pajamas, with a favorite stuffed animal, and inside a tent made of sheets and classroom chairs, wasn’t just special.

“Today’s like the best day ever at school,” the 6-year-old first-grader at North Auburn’s Rock Creek School said.

And why not? Students throughout the nation were sharing their love of more than 40 Theodore Geisel books that are as much educational as they are uproariously funny, particularly to children who are just beginning to open their own personal doors into the world of reading and books.

“Oh the places you will go,” Geisel’s Dr. Seuss would write. And his ability to transport a child into a simplistic world populated by the Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant and so many others was touchingly evident Monday in teacher Lysa Sassman’s first-grade class.

With the lights low, children were inside their handmade tents reading out loud to stuffed toys they had brought from home. The room was alive with the electricity of a collective murmur as they used flashlights to light their way through classics like “Hop on Pop” and “Horton Hears a Who.”

Some brought their own books from home. Others dipped into their teacher’s collection, which included a few frayed volumes that she herself had read as a child in the 1970s.

Yes, Sassman too was – and is – a huge Dr. Seuss fan. “Hop on Pop” was one of the first books she could read.

“They might be worth something on eBay but I’m not parting with them,” she said.

Sassman and Scott Pickett, Rock Creek principal, said that the day of reading Dr. Seuss – which coincides with the 12th annual National Education Association’s Read Across America celebration of reading – is meant to show that reading can be fun.

Garbed in natty Cat in the Hat attire that included a lofty red-and-white-striped cap, Pickett read aloud to Sassman’s class – one of many he would visit Monday. Other readers were slated to pop into classes throughout the day.

“School is about reading and learning but we want them to enjoy it,” Pickett said. “We want them to learn how much fun reading can be.”

Events throughout California included hockey legend Luc Robitaille reading to children at an elementary school in Lennox, scores of Hollywood celebrities including John Lithgow and Raven Symone from “That’s So Raven” reading to Compton Unified School District pupils, and Marines from Camp Pendleton feeding children green eggs and ham in Vista.

David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Association, said the celebration honors literacy and the fact that reading well is the foundation of academic success.

“Despite school budget cuts and other hardships, teachers every day inspire our students to see the joys of reading,” Sanchez said.

Green eggs and ham were served to kindergarten students in Rock Creek School teacher Beckie Lopez-King’s classroom.

“When kindergartners start reading, they love crazy words, rhyming words and nonsensical words,” Lopez-King said. “I’ve seen them rolling around on the floor laughing to Dr. Seuss words. And when they’re reading and laughing, it connects them with what fun reading is.”

“And now my story is all told.”

The Journal’s Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.